


Five Times Willow Met the Doctor

by Lyl



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Really bad science/magic, Time Travel, Timey Wimey, super duper magic witch, transformations, willow as companion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-24
Updated: 2013-02-24
Packaged: 2017-12-03 10:57:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/697514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyl/pseuds/Lyl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What it says on the box.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Time One

Time One

(Ninth Doctor)

~!~

The first time Willow met the Doctor, she was running down the street, flat out and away from the vampire that was hot on her trail. She kept turning to look behind her, hoping that he was falling behind, but only finding him closer and closer. So it was no wonder she didn't see the body rushing towards her in it's own state of 'running away'.

“Oomph!” “Oy!”

Tall, male and dressed in black was all Willow was able to absorb as she fell, her arms and legs tangling with the man's. The only saving grace was that the vampire behind her didn't have time to stop, tripped over their sprawled bodies, and landed himself on a nice fence post.

As the dust rained down on them, Willow had a second to realize she was laying on top of some strange man, before the world spun and she was the one looking up.

“Hi.”

“'Ello,” he said, a big grin crossing his face. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“Um,” She was still stunned from the fall, but managed to notice two things about the stranger. One, he sounded kinda like Giles, except different. Two, he wasn't moving off of her.

“What was that?” he asked, motioning with his head in the direction of the still-falling ash.

“Vampire.” she told him. Looking over his shoulder, any sense of relief she felt vanished. “What is that?!”

“Alien,” he told her before hauling her to her feet, grabbing her hand and running. Willow had a few questions about his sanity at that point, as he wouldn't stop smiling the entire time they ran through various cemeteries. Then he stopped at some weird blue box and pulled her inside.

“Where are we—woah....” She stopped just inside the door, looking around at the enormous room that was jammed inside a small, wooden box.

“Close the door, Willow. Don't want it gettin' in, do we?” he said from the large, round console in the middle of the impossibly large room. Willow didn't even stop to think, just closed the door before her brain jump started.

“Wait. How do you know my name? What is this place?”

“We've met before, we have,” he told her. “Well, I've met you, but you haven't met me yet.”

“Huh?”

“Welcome to time travel, Willow Rosenberg,” he said, moving around the console, flipping switches and pulling levers as he went. “I'll just pop us in to tomorrow morning, where you'll be safe from your vampire friends, and the Balbating will have disintegrated back into the earth.”

“Huh?” she repeated, her brain trying to catch up and process what he was saying. He knew her, but she didn't know him, because they hadn't met yet, but he'd met her in her future?

Strange sounds started to come from the centre of the room, just before it started to shake. Several seconds later, it all stopped and the man came striding down the ramp to where she'd grabbed hold of the railing for stability.

Reaching over her shoulder, he pulled open the door.

“There you are. Tomorrow morning, just like I said. Now,” he said, non-to-gently pushing her out the door and in to the early morning sunshine, “go about your business, leave the alien stuff to me, and try not to be such a bother next time, all right?”

That said, he closed the door behind her, and a minute later the strange blue box made some vromp-vromp noises before disappearing.

Willow just stared in disbelief, because not even her demon-fighting friends were going to believe this one.

End


	2. Time Two

Time Two  
Ninth Doctor

~!~

The second time Willow met the Doctor, she was more prepared and he was more the stunned silent one of their meeting. Well, for all of thirty seconds, anyway. Because the instant Willow caught sight of him in the middle of a Santa Monica street, she literally saw red. The anger she'd been suppressing for the past months came flooding back, pushing her across the pavement and into his path.

One slap, several unrepeatable names and innumerable accusations later, they had a sort-of truce and a mild understanding of what was going on.

They sat in the back corner of a small coffee shop, and had what could be considered a civil conversation. She told him about the first time she met him and how his 'next morning' had actually been 'four days later', and he told her about time travel and aliens. Oddly enough, she'd been prepared for the time travel aspect, and even a little of the alien bit – all thanks to the meeting with the Doctor that hasn't happened for him yet.

Then she told him about magic and demons, and he got a strange look on his face. Not the look of disbelief or scepticism, but like she was a puzzle he was trying to unravel.

They sat there, talking for hours, sharing tales of their various adventures, until the Doctor told her about his latest escapade involving living plastic and a girl named Rose.

“Go back for her,” she told him. “Go back and ask her again.”

The Doctor was silent for several moments as he contemplated this, weighing his choices against the possible outcomes.

“You could come with me,” he offered. “Save the world. Have fantastic adventures.”

“But I'm already saving the world,” she told him, and the Doctor had to agree. So he decided take her advice and give Rose another chance. Even if he did end up looking needy and desperate. In the end it could quite possibly be worth it.

And so they said their goodbyes, Willow anticipating that she'd never see the time travelling alien again.

As she walked away from him, Willow never noticed him pointing a metal device with a glowing blue tip at her back. And she never realized that as he read the results of his scan, he made a decision to keep an eye on her.

~!~

(For those who didn't catch it, this is my take on where the Doctor was during those 18 seconds the TARDIS was gone, at the end of Rose.)


	3. Time Three

Time Three  
(Ninth Doctor)

~!~

The third time Willow met the Doctor, was after the end of the world. Well, sort of. It was after she'd tried to end the world, but was stopped by her oldest friend and a yellow crayon. She was curled into Xander's lap, crying like her soul had been ripped out of her in tiny shreds – which it kind of had, in certain metaphorical terms – when she heard that strange vromp-vromp sound again and an odd blue box appeared on the hilltop next to them.

The Doctor strode out of the TARDIS with an annoyed look on his face, and upon seeing Willow curled up in Xander's lap, froze.

“Oh, well it would be you.”

Willow pulled herself from her grief enough to give him a look of such utter despair, that the Doctor's ire melted away in an instant.

“What are you doing here?” Willow asked him, blinking through the tears.

“Whatever stunt you pulled had enough energy in it to pull the TARDIS off course,” was his answer as he crouched down next to her. Willow started wailing again, sobbing out her apologies. The Doctor just rolled his eyes and ignored the looks and questions he was getting from Xander.

“Enough of that,” he said, his voice gentling. “It's partly my fault, for not coming round earlier to explain.”

“Explain? Explain what? Who are you?” demanded Xander. Yet another look of annoyance was all he got for his efforts.

“Come on, Willow. Let's go on a little tour of the universe, huh?” he cajoled, seeing interest on her tear-stained face. “I've got some friends I want you meet.”

“Rose?” asked Willow, searching for her over his shoulder.

“And Jack. You'll love them, promise,” said the Doctor, a gentle urging in his voice. “Come on, then. There's an entire universe to explore, and some things that need tellin'.”

Standing up, he held out his hand to Willow, his smile growing as she took it, leading her back the TARDIS and his waiting companions.

Xander just stood in complete bemusement, watching his oldest friend being led away by some stranger, into a blue box that disappeared seconds after the door closed.

He'd just gotten to the first stage of his panic attack, wondering how many ways Giles knew to kill him, when the box reappeared, and Willow walked out.

In different clothes, longer hair and a more peaceful expression on her face.

“Oh, Xander. I missed you so much,” she said, throwing her arms around him as the blue box disappeared again.

“What?!”

END


	4. Time Four

Time Four  
***Spoilers for Season 2 and Doomsday. If you haven't seen it, don't know what happens and don't want to know, you'll have to skip this part. (Well, mostly the next, sorry.)

Tenth Doctor

~!~

The fourth time Willow met the Doctor, was after his world fell apart. Again.

Willow was strolling through the park in Paris, when a familiar vromp-vromp sound announced the arrival of the TARDIS. It had been several years since she'd seen him, yet that half year she'd spent on the TARDIS with him, travelling through time and space with Rose and Jack, had been some of the best times in her life. She'd needed that change in lifestyles, if only to help ease the pain of losing Tara, and to deal with her guilt and anger over what she'd done to deal with that loss. But she'd also needed to spend time with the Doctor, to listen to him as he told her about herself.

The Doctor had spent hours explaining about a life form humans called the Elementals, and about how the last Time War had sent ripples out through space and time. Enough to weaken the Elementals to a point where they could no longer survive. They had different names across the universe, but were all the same. Native life forms on any planet that had the right sequence of DNA, raised in the right circumstances, could become an Elemental. They could harness one of the forces of nature on their planet, be it fire or wind, light or plasma, gravity or dark matter. Willow was one of these Elementals, he'd told her, but her speciality was transdimensional, spatial energy – ie. The Hellmouth. The rip in the fabric of space that made up the Hellmouth, was exactly the right kind of energy for her powers to latch on to.

“If my people were still around, you would have been found long ago,” he'd told her. “You would have been trained to handle that kind of energy, learning control.”

So she'd learned what the Doctor could teach her, read through his library for what he couldn't, and talked the TARDIS into helping her when everything else failed.

She'd been sad to leave the trio of travellers behind, but knew that she couldn't just walk away from her friends, her life, or her mistakes. So when she spotted the TARDIS materialising a short distance away from her, she ran to greet it.

Willow was brought up short when a stranger stepped through the doors, dressed in a brown pin-striped suit and brown overcoat. He looked around for a few seconds before his gaze landed on her.

“Willow!” he cried out as he strode over to her. Willow thought she'd detected a hint of a wobble in his voice, but couldn't be sure. “Good on the TARDIS for finding you.”

He grabbed her into a tight hug, and Willow stood frozen for a moment before pulling back to look at his face. She gazed into his dark eyes for several long moments.

“Doctor?” she asked incredulously. “Is that really you?”

She sent out a quick tendril of power, and was reassured by both the TARDIS and him, that this man really was the Time Lord she'd become very fond of.

“Oh, yes. I regenerated,” he said, “but that's not why I'm here.”

“Where's Rose? And Jack?”

His face twitched oddly for half a second, before he managed to choke out, “They're gone.”

“Oh, Doctor,” said Willow, pulling him into a tight embrace.

And then she led him back into the TARDIS, prepared to help him deal with the loss of a loved one, the way he had helped her.

END


	5. Time Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ....and this is where it all went to crap. Sorry.

Time Five  
(Tenth Doctor)  
~!~  
The fifth time Willow met the Doctor was also the last time. It was also the only time she had come to find him.

He was in Cardiff with Martha, saying their goodbyes to Captain Jack, when Jack got a strange look on his face. Following his gaze, the Doctor saw a familiar red head walking through the Plaza, arms feeling the air around her as if it were water. Several hugs, introductions and greetings later, the Doctor was floored speechless.

“I can help you get Rose back,” were the words that stunned him.

“There's a weak point in the Rift, just over there,” she told him, motioning to the water tower. She explained about making a tiny tear between this universe and the one Rose was in, and how she could send him across to find her, then pull them both back before sealing the tear.

The Doctor argued long and hard, then Willow told him in the calmest of voices that she was going to do it anyways, and so he might as well take the opportunity that was presented to him. It wasn't until she cupped his face and looked deeply into his eyes, that he finally gave in. He saw the energy crackling through her eyes, and understood what was happening.

“How long do you have?” he asked her.

“A year, maybe,” she said, and he felt his hearts sink at that. They both new that ever since her Elemental DNA had been awakened, it was only a matter of time before it took over completely. Those few strands of ancient genetic material were all that was needed for her to become part of the energy she controlled.

Opening a path between two different universes, creating a stable bridge that would last several hours and then closing it back up before two worlds destroyed each other was the least of her problems. Willow also had to make sure nothing else went through, in either direction. The energy she would need to absorb and control to stabilize a miniature doorway between universes would be too much for her human body, forcing the Elemental DNA to take over.

By the end of the day she'd be pure, transdimensional energy.

“I'm going to change eventually, and I want to do it on my own terms, rather than wait for it to consume me from the inside slowly,” she countered. She didn't want to spend the next year waiting for her body to burn itself into another form, and he understood that.

“Are you sure?” was his final question, though he already knew the answer.

He asked her how long she could keep the tear open, and she replied, “A couple of hours.”

And so with a tentative mind link as a tracer and the encouragement of both Jack and Martha, the Doctor was gone through the Rift.

After several sweaty hours spent burning off some excess energy with Jack, Willow bolted upright in the TARDIS, her skin burning hotter each second.

“He's got her,” she told Jack, feeling her connection to the Doctor extend itself to Rose. Dressing quickly, they made their way back outside to where the tear between dimensions remained, meeting Martha as she came back from an afternoon of wandering around Cardiff.

Minutes later, the Doctor reappeared next to Willow with a familiar blonde in his arms.

“It's time to close the tear, Doctor,” she told him.

“Thank you, Willow,” he said, echoed by a teary Rose.

As they watched, heat began to rise from her body as she concentrated on closing the hole she'd made between universes.

Soon, flames beginning to lick at her arms and legs, moving to encompass her entire body.

“Thank you, Doctor,” she told him, once the tear was sealed, her eyes blazing golden energy. “You've helped me in more ways that I can ever repay.”

“Take care of him, Rose,” she told the blonde, smiling at the tears that were pouring down her cheeks. “You too, Martha. Keep him in line.”

Finally, she looked at Jack, “I will always remember you, Jack. My Captain.”

Then she let the energy consume her, and with arms outstretched, looking like the phoenix rising from the ashes, she transformed into a wave of golden energy and disappeared.

The first of a new breed of Elementals.

END


End file.
